No Release of ‘Private’ Trump Tapes

Q:Have former White House staffers released a “private tape recording” of President Donald Trump?

A: No. That claim comes from a false headline on an old story.

FULL ANSWER

Recordings of various kinds have dogged President Donald Trump — from a hot mic on an “Access Hollywood” shoot in 2005 to the possibility that the FBI seized recorded phone calls in its recent raid on his personal lawyer.

The headline was first published on a website called Bipartisan Report and was copied the next day by PoliticalBizz.com, which is registered to an owner in India, but posts stories about U.S. politics.

The story under the headline is mostly a re-hashed Wall Street Journal report from a year ago that quoted three unnamed former Trump employees who said that as a businessman he had recorded calls in Trump Tower.

Other major news outlets had similarstories at the time, which was right after Trump had suggested on Twitter that he might have recordings of his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey.

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which is investigating Trump’s firing of Comey and whether his campaign colluded with Russia, has twicerequested that the White House hand over any recordings it may have of Comey. The White House has not provided any recordings nor has it confirmed that it does not have any recordings, according to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office. Feinstein is the top Democrat on the judiciary committee. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is the committee chairman, but his office didn’t return our call.

So, there’s no evidence of White House tapes and it’s not true that former staffers have released a tape.

A search of the Nexis news database showed no results for reports of recently released tape recordings of Trump.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizationsworking with Facebook to debunk false stories flagged by readers on the social media network.